An Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra fighter talks on a walkie-talkie while carrying his weapon on Al-Khazan frontline of Khan Sheikhoun
IN PHOTO: An Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra fighter talks on a walkie-talkie while carrying his weapon on Al-Khazan frontline of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province May 17, 2014. REUTERS/Hamid Khatib

A YouTube video showed Jabhat al-Nusra using U.S.-supplied anti-tank weapons. The al-Qaeda faction in Syria earlier ousted two moderate factions backed by the United States.

The weapons, which are believed to have been intended for moderate factions, apparently reached extremist rebels in Syria. The al-Qaeda faction ousted U.S.-supplied factions, the Syrian Revolutionary Front and Harak Hazam, from northern Idlib in November. Even though it was believed that al-Nusra managed to seize a significant number of equipment during the fight, Washington Post reported that the exact nature of seized arms had been unclear. An account connected to al-Nusra posted an image of a TOW anti-tank guided missile system on Twitter on Monday. The anti-tank weapon can be used against armoured targets. The tweet coincided with a propaganda video on YouTube that showed al-Nusra militants with various heavy weapons including the anti-tank weapon. The video, on the other hand, did not show any of the militants firing it.

It is not yet confirmed if the Middle Eastern extremist organisation seized the weapon during the November raid. However, prominent blogger Eliot Higgins aka Brown Moses, known for tracking open-source videos of Syrian fights, claimed that the model number of the missile tube on the video, 71E-1B, was consistent with the kind of weapons supplied by the United States to moderate rebels. He also speculated that the militants shown in the video might not belong to al-Nusra. A vetted opposition group was likely to have captured the TOW shown in the video, he said.

PJMedia's national security and terrorism correspondent Patrick Poole reported that the CIA had provided the TOW anti-tank missiles which, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, were captured by al-Nusra which allegedly killed at least 15 soldiers in regime forces in Wadi al-Deif and al-Hamdia camps. It was also reported that at least eight fighters from the other side had also been killed. A tank from regime forces was allegedly devastated by al-Nusra with an American Tao missile.

Moderate factions, on the other hand, expressed scepticism about the claims that al-Nusra had managed to seize American weapons. They claimed that such weapons were subject to a rigid accountability process to make sure that those would not fall into the hands of extremist forces.

Video Courtesy: YouTube/Morasel Manara

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au